Global pandemic postpones this year’s glitzy Tony Awards

FILE – This June 9, 2019 file photo shows the stage prior to the start of the 73rd annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The 74th Annual Tony Awards, scheduled to air live on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 7, will be postponed and rescheduled at a later date. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — With Broadway shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic, producers of the annual Tony Awards have postponed this year’s celebration of American theater.

The show was originally scheduled for June 7 but the virus forced all 41 Broadway theaters to go dark and caused turmoil in the Tony schedule. The awards show will be “rescheduled at a later date,” according to producers.

Broadway theaters abruptly closed on March 12, knocking out all shows on the Great White Way but also 16 that were still scheduled to open, including “Diana,” “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “Company.” Already some shows scheduled to open this spring have abandoned their plans, including “Hangmen” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Broadway producers have vowed to resume musicals and plays the week of April 13, but that would be only 10 days before the official cut-off for eligibility for the Tonys. There was no word on whether the original timetable will stay but all signs indicate the eligibility date will also have to shift.

Other awards shows postponed by the virus include the 2020 iHeartRadio Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music awards.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.

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